STO: Aye, She’s A Beaut

January 24, 2011

Twitter was abuzz this weekend with Star Trek Online players talking about the amazing changes to Earth Spacedock on the Tribble test shard. Normally, I resist looking at anything before they reach the live servers, but the temptation this time was just too great. I knew I had to see them for myself.

That said, I tried to limit much of my exploring to ESD, and after seeing it I have nothing but compliments. First off, it’s nice to see that we now have a transporter room. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that Club 47 got a face-lift, and after making a giant fool out of myself by careening into the transparent barrier separating the club from the corridor, I even did a little jig on the dance floor with a few other players (after wiping my bloody nose, of course). Not sure why they need so many guards armed to the teeth standing on the lookout though, are a bunch of partying Federation officers really that much of a threat?

There are heaps of other changes scattered all across ESD, but the real surprise was waiting for me in the new Ship Requisition area:

Wow. I literally felt chills as I stepped off the turbolift and ventured up to the window to behold the Galaxy Class beyond it. When you play “as” your starship out in space, you start to lose the sense of just how massive these things are supposed to be. Here, the new Ship Requisitions serves as a clear reminder. This area used to be a bunch of NPCs standing around a room talking about ships and now it’s…well, still a bunch of NPCs standing around a room talking about ships, but its presentation (something which Cryptic is becoming increasingly accomplished at, I might add) is simply beyond beautiful.

Gah, I was too busy drooling to take screenies. I thought the whole place looked fantastic. The lower level, which consted entirely of two criss-crossing corridors turbolifts at the ends made me laugh. Is it that hard to get through the staion?

That’s a great screenshot! I almost wish I still played the game. I don’t hate STO, I was surprised at how well the game plays, but I felt that a lot of the content was repetitive. Then again I didn’t group with others and I didn’t play for very long.

I won’t deny it, I felt it was repetitive as well near the beginning. Getting promoted and requisitioning better ships was addicting though, and the combat changes with every bracket when your enemies come at you with better tricks. Now they’ve made the missions more varied, and with the weekly featured episodes and the upcoming foundry, the repetitiveness has eased a bit.

Unfortunately the first 11 levels are the worst, at least in my opinion. Your start ship is just not much fun and it’s not until you get your first ship upgrade that the game starts to open up. If you decide to give it another chance try to stick it out until Lt. Commander, you might end up having fun.

Great screenshot! I plan to give it another whirl some time once I get my main rig up and running again. My initial sub time ran out while I’ve been waiting for my new power supply to arrive, and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to stay subbed while using a backup PC that can’t run it.

I had gotten just far enough that I was starting to see real potential, but I have to say it was slow going at first. I plan to at least play until I get my first ship upgrade, which I wasn’t too far from.

I’ve heard quite a few people say that the first 10 levels of STO are the toughest to get through, and I can sort of understand why. The tutorial isn’t all that great, unfortunately, and then you’re stuck with the Miranda (or the beached whale in space is what I prefer to call it) until you get promoted. Space combat gets increasingly more fun after that though, once you start getting more officers and training more skills. At least now Cryptic has added the Featured Episodes you can do at minimum level 10, which should help things go by a little more pleasantly.